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www.spec.com.au PORTLAND OBSERVER Friday January 9 2015 7 BILL MELDRUM Drivers urged to slow down A PORTLAND volunteer wildlife rescuer has urged motorists to slow down to avoid injuring or killing koalas on the district’s major arterial roads. Rex Feeley from Balongabush Wildcare and Rescue made the plea, saying there was a huge town koala population at the moment. “I’ve been doing at least one koala rescue a day in recent weeks,” he said. On one morning last week, he rescued three koalas in Portland’s urban area. “There are signs warning motorists about koalas on one main road into Portland, but ideally those signs should be everywhere,” he said. “It may be impractical to ask B-double truck drivers to slow down when there is a koala on the road in front of them, but other drivers do have the opportunity to avoid koalas on the road. “There is a huge koala population moving east into Portland from blue gum A chance to change a young life in Vietnam PORTLAND’S Rodney Stone, founder of the Thanh Loc Project, with one his young Vietnamese scholarship recipients. Mr Stone will be holding an information night on Tuesday for those who might want to join him in his project. Picture: SUPPLIED REBECCA LAKE IN the small commune of Thanh Loc in southern Vietnam life is tough for many. Extreme poverty is the norm, human trafficking is rife and acquiring an education is a distant dream. Six years ago Portland accountant, Rodney Stone, found himself in the remote village after signing up to volunteer with global development organisation Habitat for Humanity. There, he was part of a small team lending a helping hand to create shelters for the numerous families who live without a home. It wasn’t long before he came across the local school. A basic wooden structure covered in mould large enough to squeeze at most 20 children inside. Crowding around the flimsy walls and peering through the small cracks of the classroom were almost 50 children listening intently to the lessons and using their fingers to practice writing the intricacies of the Vietnamese alphabet in the dirt. After returning back to the comforts of his life in Portland Mr Stone couldn’t shake the school scene out of his mind. The difference for a child to earn a place inside those school walls is a mere $70 which includes stationary expenses and the all important uniform. For the accountant, who had bonded with several children in Thanh Loc, the chance to effectively change a young life seemed almost too easy to be true. “I couldn’t stop thinking of those kids. They ran up the river to say goodbye to us and I thought I just had to go back,” said Mr Stone of his first departure from Thanh Loc. “I asked some of our contacts if I could go back over there and they said look you can come back but it’s a communist country, they will want to pick what commune you work in.” However the Portlander was determined. After sending off a total of 44 letters and enduring countless meetings with government officials, Mr Stone was welcomed back to Thanh Loc. “So I went there by myself and I gave five or 10 scholarships for secondary students who weren’t at school,” that was the beginning, he said. Today Mr Stone’s Thanh Loc Project (TLP) distributes 140 scholarships on an annual basis throughout the largely uneducated population, while raising funds for essential infrastructure such as bridges, schools, homes, water wells and toilets. “The education just empowers them. It gives them the strength to stand up for themselves and to dream,” said Mr Stone. Due to a lack of funding the larger development organisations operating in Kien Giang province, where Thanh Loc is located, have been forced to withdraw leaving TLP on its own. “When Catalyst Foundation and Habitat for Humanity pulled out that’s when we decided to start sending volunteer teams over there,” said Mr Stone. “The teams have been brilliant,” he added. Typically a group of all ages and skills will arrive in Ho Chi Minh City for a two-day induction with Mr Stone. During that time the volunteers are briefed about the war-torn nation’s history and culture and they learn about the basics such as crossing the notoriously busy roads. Mr Stone usually makes a point to take the visitors to the city’s war museum. “When you go to the war museum the first thing you think is oh, the American war? What’s the American War? Then it just dawns on you the shoe is on the other foot now,” said Mr Stone. From Ho Chi Minh the volunteers fly to Thanh Loc where they commence their projects. “We spend five days working take two days off, work for another five days then come home,” said Mr Stone, adding that there is always time to travel around the province to learn more about the way of life in Southern Vietnam. “We regularly visit an agent orange orphanage,” said Mr Stone, highlighting the long standing consequences of the controversial Vietnam War which saw almost seven million tons of bombs dropped on the nation and its neighbours. “A couple of the most confronting sites that our teams have seen is a baby with a normal size body and a head as big as a balloon. Another time I took them over one kid reached out his arm to shake someone’s hand but it was a third arm that was growing out of the chest,” explained Mr Stone of the devastating generational impacts inflicted by Agent Orange herbicides which the American military used to force peasants out of the countryside and control the guerrilla warfare. The ever humble Mr Stone has, up until now, been reluctant to promote the project however because he currently has several local volunteers on board to assist with the administration and marketing of TLP he is ready to bring the project to the next level. For the first time the organisation is holding an information night – in Portland on Tuesday at Quest Portland, 66 Julia St, from 7.30-8.30pm. Mr Stone hopes to generate interest throughout the community and hopefully inspire some people to journey over to Vietnam and get involved. For those unable to attend contact Mr Stone at rodneys@ silvanridge.com.au. plantations being harvested. “They see a tree in the urban areas and head towards it – it doesn’t matter if it is not a eucalyptus, they see it and head straight towards it,” he said. He also urged residents with dogs to make sure they were locked up if a koala was nearby. “The koala is more than likely to be travelling through the area, so give them space and they will move on,” he said. Mr Feeley’s sentiments about slowing down on the roads were shared by Portland fisherman Robby Davis. Mr Davis took this picture of a koala sitting on a tree stump near the Henty Hwy (ring road) whilst heavy transport scoots past. He said another koala had attempted to cross the road, but was killed in the process. “It saddens me every week seeing my old mates smashed all over the road, so much money is made from roads, where is the care of our iconic creatures,” he said. 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